This exhibition and book owe their inspiration to S. Dillon Ripley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, who first suggested the Lazzaroni as an appropriate subject for a show marking the 139th meeting
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington from December 26 to 31, 1972. Without the investigations
of A. Hunter Dupree, Edward Lurie, and Nathan Reingold, however,
his suggestion could not have been realized, given the scarcity of
studies in the history of American science and its relative newness as a
field of historical investigation. I owe an especial debt of gratitude to Professor Lurie and Dr. Reingold for their generous help in the creation of the exhibition and the writing of this catalog. Silvio Bedini
and Walter Muir Whitehill also gave generously of their time and
expert advice. We are grateful to Joyce Chisley of the staff of the NPG-NCFA Library for her tolerance and patience in attending to
our needs, and Judith King, Secretary in the Historian's Office, for
her assiduous attention to details and careful preparation of the manuscript. In the bibliography, we acknowledge, too, the help of those
writers whose investigations contributed to our understanding of nineteenth-century science and the Lazzaroni who dreamed great
dreams for its future.

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